New two-game tickets make March Madness in Orlando more affordable

Tuesday

Jan 28, 2014 at 9:25 PMJan 29, 2014 at 12:36 AM

The two-game session upper bowl tickets start at $66.

By Sean Kernansean.kernan@news-jrnl.com

ORLANDO — March Madness is about to get more affordable for the average fan.Organizers of the second- and third-round NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament games scheduled March 20 and 22 at Amway Center announced new two-game session tickets will go on sale Monday for each of the three sessions.“This has never happened before where the NCAA will allow us to break up the book (of tickets),” John Bisignano, president of the Central Florida Sports Commission, said Tuesday night at a gathering of the tournament's local organizing committee.The two-game session upper bowl tickets start at $66. Previously, the least expensive way for fans to see any action was to buy a six-game package at $198. Lower bowl ticket packages are $258.Stetson is the host team for the fifth time in tournament history. Athletic director Jeff Altier liked that the NCAA is allowing ticket sales per session in addition to the all-tournament packages that have been for sale.“This is going to allow more people to take part,” Altier said. “Those tickets for two games will start at $66. That's $33 per game. We are going to have some great college basketball. When you talk about quality basketball, we're going to have it in a beautiful facility.”The single-session seats will be broken down into Thursday afternoon ($66) and night ($71) second-round games and the Saturday session ($76) of two third-round games featuring Thursday's winners.As of Tuesday, about 11,500 all-sessions tickets had been sold, leaving about 5,550 left to sell. Of course, on a single-session basis that would be about 16,650 remaining tickets.No one knows what eight teams will be here, but Altier said the Orlando games will have a No. 1 or No. 2 seed, and a No. 3 or No. 4 seed in the bracket, guaranteeing two highly ranked teams. He predicted the Saturday session featuring Thursday's winners would be first to sell out, and suggested fans of No. 3 Florida and unranked Florida State may want to buy early.“When Florida State was here in '93, we sold 2,000 all-tournament (tickets) within 24 hours of the announcement that they were coming here,” Altier said. “It's a high likelihood that one or both of those schools would be here because the tournament has become even more regionalized in the 10 years since we last hosted.”Tickets may be purchased online at NCAA.com/mbbtickets. Teams and tip-off times will be determined by the NCAA on March 16.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.